How are we supposed to love bad people?

The heart (another name for essence – the clarity of mind) knows, but the mind (the alien contents within the clarity of mind) doesn’t, and has to be convinced. We need to shine some light on the matter. So do we mean,” How can the light, love the dark?”

The light is what we are. Light is clarity. This light shines everywhere: it is unconfined. As it just shines – or clarifies – it reveals what is, unconditionally. This clarity is love. The light of love just shines and has no discrimination. In the first instance light must shine on the matter!

The light is the reality of no dimension. The dark has no reality as it has dimensions. Whoa! Did you just say, “The dark has no reality as it has dimensions”? If a thing has sides, then it is made up of parts, and those parts are made up of parts. All parts have no inherent existence of their own – they depend on causes and conditions as everything is made up. If a thing is made up/created, it can be destroyed and is therefor impermanent. It only seems to have reality.

The same applies to our ‘self’: we are made up of parts/skandha.*
All sentient beings are, by nature, the clear light of bliss, but have developed a ‘side’!

And it’s the same with ‘bad’ people!
Remember: we love people (potentials of the clear light of bliss) and not what they do with this clear light of bliss (which is well hidden!). Yes, there are very bad people doing very bad things to others’ minds, bodies and the planet, but minds, bodies and the planet are impermanent events. The clear light of bliss isn’t. It cannot be touched!

These bad, sad people have an inner conflict which disturbs them. Conscience is creating a conflict between right and wrong, and the more heavily we are into ourself, the heavier the conflict and the more we crave control – and nothing ever fits. We all know we have a ‘good’ side to us, but cannot express it. We know when we are doing wrong, and still justify that.

Bad, sad people are no different from ourselves. We are all governed by desires and fears – some more, some less. In the past we have all done bad things to others, and now we’re talking about love.

How did we change?
We had a glimpse of truth. Light in the dark. Our badness did not last forever.

How do we put the world right?
By simply recognising. The more we recognise, the more the light. The more the clarity. The more the love. This recognition removes our own darkness.

One day, everyone will be surprised by joy!
Compassion is challenging.

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*The historical Buddha spoke often of the Five Skandhas, also called the Five Aggregates or the Five Heaps. The skandhas, very roughly, might be thought of as components that come together to make an individual. Every thing that we think of as “I” is a function of the skandhas. Put another way, we might think of an individual as a process of the skandhas.

The five skandhas|
The sutras describe five aggregates:

“form” or “matter”: external and internal matter. Externally, rupa is the physical world. Internally, rupa includes the material body and the physical sense organs.

“sensation” or “feeling”: sensing an object as either pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.

“perception”, “conception”, “apperception”, “cognition”, or “discrimination” : registers whether an object is recognized or not (for instance, the sound of a bell or the shape of a tree).

“mental formations”, “impulses”, “volition”, or “compositional factors” : all types of mental habits, thoughts, ideas, opinions, prejudices, compulsions, and decisions triggered by an object.

“consciousness” or “discernment”

The Buddhist literature describes the aggregates as arising in a linear or progressive fashion, from form to feeling to perception to mental formations to consciousness. In the early texts, the scheme of the five aggregates is not meant to be an exhaustive classification of the human being: rather it describes various aspects of the way an individual manifests.